Rashad Vaughn

After seeing how Shabazz had a crazy drop in stock by going from being the next Kobe Bryant to getting compared to Nick Young in the span of one year; I don't like extreme hype of prospects at an extremely young age. But one thing I don't understand is how Rashad Vaughn isn't a top 5 prospect. He literally has everything you want in a shooting guard. He has an immense SCORING ability, the range on his shot is Jimmer Fredette-esque, he has an ability to score of the dribble due to his great ball-handling ability, utilizes stepbacks, fakes, jabsteps and great isolation moves out of the triple threat. He also isn't a complete black hole in an offense, and can get his teammates involved. He dominates at showcases and camps such as winning Pangos Camp MVP, Winning the Nike Youth Global Challenge, averaging 20 PPG in the EYBL and getting invited to the Under Armour Elite 24 game for the second straight year. I've heard some schools backed off his recruitment because he's very very very very very public with his plans to become a one and done player. To summarize he can do everything you want a SG to do (Defend, Shoot, Score, Pass and Dribble) and is doing the same things other players who received hype at this time in their career.

Here's a few videos for those who haven't seen Rashad play.

Just incase it comes up, here are my personal rankings for class of 2014.

I really do like Vaughn's game and hope he joins my team (UK) next year cause I love his ability to score in a variety of ways as you said but he probably doesn't get as much hype as other SG's before him because of his lack of elite athleticism. To me he seems like an average athlete by nba standards. He reminds me of a bigger/stronger Doron Lamb.

Great tools, questionable mentality. He can score from all over the floor, but still takes some awful shots, heat checks and has a questionable floor game too. IMO, he's building up his own expectations too much. He's setting himself up for disappointment a la Ricky Ledo if his near future doesn't go according to plan perfectly. Tremendous potential, but I'd take a few 2014 wings over him.

Outside the top 5 is his lack of length at the position. If you look at top SG's, they are usually either ridiculously athletic and have some definite length to give them that much of an advantage. The top 5 scoring SG's last season (at least generally classified as "SG" SG's) were Kobe, James Harden, Dwyane Wade, JR Smith and DeMar DeRozan. I don't know about Kobe (am guessing he is in this area), but the thing all of them have in common are 6-9+ wingspans. In fact, all of them other than DeRozan have 6-10+ wingspans. Rashad was measured at 6-5 with a 6-6 wingspan. Not bad size, just not exactly the separation one sees from top level players at said position.

I also have not really seen "great" ballhandling from Rashad Vaughn just yet. Think he is adequate, yet seems to be much better off of the catch-and-shoot as opposed to creating. He does not seem to get a lot of separation or possess blow by speed. He kills guys at this level, however much like a guy like Shabazz, it will be interesting to see how effective he is at a higher level. Rashad luckily enough seems to have some passing ability and is aggressive, plus he has some definite strength going for him at such a young age.

Very interested to see how he does at Findlay, they have a lot of talent on the wing this year and he should by all means still be there go-to guy. I see him as more than likely a top 10-15 guy in this class, just have trouble rating him above Mudiay, who I believe is a "great" ballhandler and has some of that blow by, penetrating ability. Also like Trey Lyles, Karl Towns and Stanley Johnson ahead of him at current time, placing him at 9. Think that is still a good ranking and of course things could change, plus he certainly has ability to be as high as you have him ranked. Hard to predict the future, lol.

Also have heard that Rashad had kind of felt overshadowed by Tyus Jones, them both being from Minnesota. He had a chance to play to play with Howard Pulley and chose to play with Wisconsin Playground Elite. They were 8-10 and missed out on going to the Peach Jam. It was cool that he wanted to be the main player on his team, however think that playing with Tyus might have just highlighted his ability further, not to mention would have prepared him to do what he looks to be best at. In his mind, he sees himself as a possible PG, though I think at the NBA level, would not see that happening. Certainly a solid young prospect, just wanted to point out why people may be apprehensive to rank him as highly as you do at the current time. Definitely liked your post and your list though, plus the write-up was nice, well done!